Thursday, December 17, 2009

Amazon Adventure Day 21 – Parintins

This morning the ship is anchored at a little town called Parintins. It has become some what famous for a couple of things. The first is that it was the site of a Microsoft experiment with a form of long range wi-fi. It supposedly covers mile rather than the typical 180 feet of the normal type of wi-fi. My machine can see it but can’t pull it in. I need and arial for my lap top. The second thing it is famous for is it puts on a Boi Bumba show. This is the dancing which is popular for the Rio festival. This show is kind of a warm up act for people who are hoping to get a spot in one of the big time

There isn’t much in the little town to see as there are only thirty thousand inhabitants and they are spread out over several square miles. So we have a leisurely lunch and then head off to the tenders into town. The town is putting on a special Boi Bumba show for the ship, and we have tickets. When we get there we see that everyone on the ship is already there and we are seated in the back. However we can still see the show so it isn’t so bad. What a show it is. The costumes are fabulous. Wild feathers and colourful patterns. Huge animals made of feathers and paper machete. The story is that the farmers pregnant wife falls in love with the landowners cow and then the farmer kills the cow. Big trouble then as the landowner isn’t very happy. However the witch doctor revives the cow and every body lives happily ever after. My Portuguese is not that great so I may have some of the details wrong on the story. But it was a great show and the dancing was out of this world.

After the show we wandered the little town before boarding the tender back to the ship. It is a very clean little town. The streets are paved and there are lots of shops selling goods made in China. We stop and look in this one shop which sells farm type implements. You can buy an amazing variety machete for the equivalent of $12.00. Or a marine diesel engine for $20,000.